Manchester City thump Southampton

Champions Manchester City have beaten Southampton 3-nil at St Mary's to apply some pressure to English Premier League football leaders Chelsea.

Manchester City's Yaya Toure Photo: PHOTOSPORT

With table-topping Chelsea held to a nil-all draw against Sunderland yesterday, victory for City took them above Southampton into second place with 27 points from 13 matches, six behind Jose Mourinho's pace setters.

Tottenham Hotspur came from a goal down to beat Everton 2-1 with goals from Christian Eriksen and Roberto Soldado moving Spurs up to seventh with 20 points.

After a less than convincing start to the attempted defence of their title, City's display against Southampton saw them back to their free-flowing best as goals from Yaya Toure, Frank Lampard and Gael Clichy condemned Ronald Koeman's high-flying side to a first home defeat of the season.

Everton's Kevin Mirallas produced a stunning strike from 20 metres to open the scoring at White Hart Lane in the clash between the two Europa League representatives.

Tottenham equalised six minutes later when Everton goalkeeper Tim Howard palmed Harry Kane's shot into the path of Eriksen, who kept his composure to score.

In first half stoppage time, Soldado scored his first league goal since March when he raced on to Aaron Lennon's astute pass and powered a shot past Howard.

Everton applied pressure late on but Spurs stayed strong to avoid their third consecutive league defeat at home.